T-Model Trader Interviews James Orr Part 5

 Hello Traders.

I am just back from holiday (although my mind is still on holiday mode!) and catching up on everything from last week. This is the second last post with T-Model Trader interviewing me, and the last section will be posted next week.

I hope you all have a great trading week!

James Orr

Question 15

I have had this question in mind for a considerable amount of time, as it is something I have wondered about. It was a comment that you wrote in an email to all subscribers this morning that has prompted my memory of it.

Obviously there are many around the globe who follow your trading methods and I am assuming that there has been many a polite and supportive comment come your way regarding Decisive Trading.

What I had been wondering though, is to whether there are many who challenge your trading methods, or you personally through less than polite comments, etc?

If so, how does that make you feel?

James Orr

I had a feeling you were saving the probing questions for near the end of the interview. The girlfriend/sister question was just the warm up!

I will try and keep this answer relatively short, as I could in fact write a considerable amount!

There are a huge number of great people out there, and they gravitate toward the Decisive Trading material and I hope learn and improve because of it. As I mentioned in an earlier answer, I really look at Decisive Traders as friends and a community now. That’s not to say they will all be successful traders – far from it. The risk and failure rate is still there for everyone and anyone. However, I believe that the majority of people who end up coming to the YouTube channel and watching a large portion of the videos, or those who take the courses I teach, do so with a realistic mind-set and are good people. They want to improve themselves and their situation and are willing to put in the hard work to do so – that type of person is someone I respect and easily get on with.

However, there are also the negative and hateful. And yes, they do come out of the woodwork on the regular. The best way to do this is probably to summarise a few of the recent ones I can remember:

-       I had a guy comment on one of the videos with incredibly abusive language. I then blocked him and told him I was doing so. He then proceeded to email me to show me that he could ‘get around the block’. His page and profile picture suggested he was in his 50s, so a fully-grown man.

His emails were similarly aggressive (with the grammar of a four-year-old) and it ended with him assuring me he was a professional trader and I was a fake and liar and blah blah. His solution? A one week trading competition.

I am not joking here.

He wanted to have a one week trading competition. Now, anyone who knows anything about trading, knows that what he suggested is ridiculous. One week of trading results is meaningless. To turn it into a competition would also force you to overtrade and basically gamble. So, he proved in one email that he didn’t have any idea what he was talking about and was effectively, an idiot.

Now this was a fully-grown man - almost twice my age - effectively attacking me, someone he has never met before. What annoys me, is he wouldn’t have said it to me face to face. The internet instead gives these idiots voices where they can attack in whatever way they want with no repercussions.

-       I had a guy who runs a ‘trading channel’ comment on one of my videos ‘OMG this is too funny.’

Again, he is a fully-grown man. The only think ‘funny’ is that a fully-grown man uses ‘OMG’ in a sentence.

-       A message from a guy telling me trading was completely random and so I was a fraud and if the market moved against a trade it would bankrupt you and I was causing that to happen to people. He said you can’t make money from trading and demanded I explain ‘why’ he was wrong.

I explained and pointed him in the direction of things he could read and watch to help him out. I also explained stops, money management and the fact that I had been trading for years.

His argument simply changed tact, saying ‘well you may make money, but you’re conning everyone else’. And he began commenting on every video he could find telling people as much. So even when faced with logical answers and explanations, he just chose to shove his head in the sand and keep attacking, no doubt still sure he was correct.

Now those are only a few I can remember. But there are many many more on a regular basis. And as much as I have grown able to allow them to wash over me, some still strike a nerve and really annoy me. I spend countless hours working on Decisive Trading, the channel, the courses, the innumerable emails and the subscription services. I also did and still do put in a huge amount of effort to my trading. So, when some random person decides it’s ok to attack me, it can really pi** me off. I don’t understand what makes them think it is ok to do just because it is online.

It used to bother me a lot more, basically because I had never experienced it before I started posting videos. There is no real ‘outlet’ to the comments, because you don’t know who the person is and can’t see them. So instead it used to simply boil my blood for a day!

However, I have grown used to it and in all honesty, 99% of the time I simply laugh, delete and block them now. I have come to realise that it is mainly through jealousy that these people appear. They think their comments or disliking the video is somehow a way to empower their belief. I just let them have it now. It doesn’t make any difference to me or how I live, it doesn’t have any impact on Decisive Trading, so why should I allow it to annoy me? If anything, they spur me on to make more content and keep pushing forward. After all, I need to give them something to get annoyed about, maintain their miserable lives and hit that dislike button!

Question 16

I had been thinking prior to your last answer, that considering your public profile and the less than nice ways people can be, that comments would have come your way. Didn't realize the extent of it all.

Prior to my Decisive Trading time, I had to cancel a credit card to get myself removed from a trading organization, as sadly they didn't honour their initial statement of being able to quit at any time. 

I do think I will leave this mortal coil one day without ever fully understanding why people need to do this!

I am now wondering about the responses you got from family and friends. Not only about the time when you were trying to develop as a trader, but also when you decided to create Decisive Trading.

Were those around you supportive or did they try to convince you otherwise?

James Orr

 

It is a real shame that so many people conduct themselves in that way. I wouldn’t be surprised if a lot of regulation ends up coming into the teaching side of trading because of all of these idiots. The unfortunate thing is, the people who will suffer are the beginners with small accounts. There is already a push to reduce leverage with brokers considerably.

I have to admit here that my family have always been supportive. Even when they don’t understand what I am trying to do they support me. I am pretty blessed in that regard.

Although my Mum still does occasionally ask me – ‘are you sure you don’t want to get a proper job?’

I think that is just a mum being a mum though and it always makes me laugh!

Question 17

I have been going thru your answers posted over the last few weeks. What truly stands out for me is the "universal" similarity of experience regards the trading developmental journey. Many things that you have written I can go back and find in my own words within my trading journal and I am guessing that many others may feel the same. 

I could not have come close to capturing prior to starting what has taken place for me over the last 16 months or so regarding trading. This time of learning to trade has turned me inside out, upside down, left me emotional flattened and completely devoid of knowing how to proceed in regards to my mental capacities at times. 

Given that you are receiving emails and questions from traders, I am guessing that there would be a repetition of these "universal" trading themes?

Are there any other insights or pointers that you feel are important that hasn't been covered so far here?

James Orr

Unfortunately, the most common emails still tend to follow one of two threads:

-        Either that people have lost a lot of money and are somewhat lost and don’t really know what to do. I get regular emails from people who have rinsed through all of their savings and/or their pensions. It either comes from throwing all of their money at an instructor, or else just going it alone without any real plan and getting into a lot of trouble.

-       Or else, something along the lines of – ‘If I buy your training, how much money can I be making in 6 months?’

The first type of email really bothers me, mostly because by then it is way too late for any real difference to be made by what I tell them. All I can do is advise them to stop, and only ever come back to trading with very small risk and money they can afford to lose.

The second type of email makes me want to bang my head against a brick wall. No matter how many videos or blog posts I make stating that trading is not a quick route to income, and that there are no guarantees of success, I still get these emails. I usually reply now with something along the lines of ‘most likely zero’, and that puts an end to the conversation! I am only really ever interested in people who approach things with a determination to put in the hard work.